4 Hole in the Wall

Hi! Friends, in our last discussion we talked about AGMARKNET, wherein the issues related to marketing of agricultural produce and the problems that the administrators as well as the farmers are facing, that we became aware of. And the only way to come out of such problems is the participation. The participation of the end-users, that is the farmers, and at the same time the participation of the professionals, who are involved in the agricultural marketing activities. It maybe the officers of the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection or the APMC or the Marketing Boards etc.

To what extent that they are involving in these activities. So then the efficiency of that system is going to be enhanced. Keeping the learnings of the AGMARKNET, now the major issue that comes to our discussion is. So when we want to implement the information-communication technologies, what are the benefit of farmers. The major issue emerges is whether the farmers are having those skills of making use of these ICT’s. Under such circumstances I am going to discuss with you an experiment that was conducted in the slums of New Delhi, wherein the slum dwellers started learning computers with their own involvement. That famous experiment is known as the Hole in the Wall experiment. And the contents of this are now just I am starting with.

A New Way to Learn:

It is basically a new way to learn.

• Learning station seeks to create a new paradigm in the learning process by providing unrestricted computer access to the groups of children in an open playground setting. So the basic issue is if you provide access. Accessibility that we discussed in case of e-Readiness also. If that accessibility is there with the necessary infrastructure; automatically skills can be inculcated, so that’s what is the major issue, the major crux of this discussion.
• Open setting to use the natural curiosity stimulates learning. We should have conducted the similar things in the 4 walls. But there is not much curiosity in the 4 walls, as we find in case of natural setting. So with that idea this experiment was launched.
• Minimally invasive education as a concept that was used to make this Hole in the Wall experiment, first started in a slum of Kalkaji, New Delhi in the year 1999. So minimum invasive education means, the infrastructure is being provided, accessibility is provided but there is no monitoring or the rules and regulations of the formal education are taken out of this system. So that’s what is the minimum invasion. And have give them the freedom. Give the learners the freedom, so that they can learn on their own.
• So looking into the success of that in the year 2000, the Govt of Delhi set up 30 such learning stations in the resettlement colonies in different parts of Delhi. And this project is still continuing and creating a tremendous impact among the generations of young learners.
• The basic idea is in a playground setting, so such kiosks are established. It is completely covered with glass, with only opening, with just you can put your hand and you can operate the mouse and you can put on and shut down your system and you have access to the keyboard. So with this minimum things, this people started learning.

The Vital Features:

The vital features of this experiment include

• The playground setting. Means it is just like another game that the students are playing in the same playground setting.
• And it is collaborative learning. It is not that there is a teacher to instruct you, to teach you how to operate and how to open the file, and how to close the file and how to save the contents and how to add pictures and how to delete pictures and all these things. It is all learning by doing. And somebody else who is observing the operations, he is suggesting, you do like this then it may happen. And that is how; trial and error method and learning by doing. So that’s what we call it as a collaborative learning.
• Then optimum utilization of the learning stations. So he is being done by the learners, because all the time the students are there. Basically they are curious, what exactly the computer is and  how we can learn that. And there is a freedom and there is access also.
• And learning with the school system.
• Learning is basically to learn. Because I have my own curiosity. When I go to the school under the pressure of my parents, my learning is something different and when I learn on my own with my own interest, that learning is different.

And students can also do certain projects making use of this infrastructure As per the statistics more than 3 lakh students have been benefited from 300 Hole in the Wall stations situated in different parts of New Delhi .

• The first such experiment was taken up in the year 1999-2000, and later it was extended to 30 learning stations in different parts of Delhi.
• The Sugata Mitra’s experience says that, because he is the founder of this and he is the generator of this idea. Basically he was working on the unsupervised learning since 1980-82. And this unsupervised learning, making use of computers.

So there are two important issues here. Computer being the advanced technique, management of the information, and there is no supervisor or there is no teacher; how can we learn. So this was the biggest question mark. But Sugata Mitra worked on that and ultimately it got success. And finally in 1999 he decided to test in the field of New Delhi, and ultimately he got the success.

The Community believes that Learning Stations are beneficial for children.

The results of this minimal invasive education or unsupervised learning process are before you now. The community believes that the learning stations are really beneficial for the children. And how they are beneficial. So you look into the results. It spreads the basic computer literacy among the society. So 85% of the people said that. And it provides opportunity to learn the computers, and more than 80% said that. And it improves the social cohesion, because everybody is coming on a single platform and they are learning. And it develops the confidence and pride of an individual, who was not aware of the concepts of the basic use of the computer and basic learnings on the computer. But now they are. This was the opinion of more than 85% of the people. And it improves the academic performance of the learners. Because this is a new technique. They can make use of this as an instrument for their academic performance. This was the opinion of 79% of the people.

Academic performance of the children improves
Then academic performance how it is improved. So what is the extent of improvement in the academic performance was also surveyed. The results reveal that in English there was improvement of about 16%, in mathematics there was improvement up to 25%. Then in case of science there was improvement in 18%, and in social science there was improvement in 21%. So if you look into, if with this minimal invasive education, if you can improve your performance by 16 to 25 %. That itself shows the potential of the concept as well as how can we make use of that. So these are the studies conducted in the State of Maharashtra. So a site with internet connectivity that was provided on the lines of the Hole in the Wall experiment.

Summary of Sugata Mitra’s Experiment:

The summary of Sugata Mitra’s experiment says that.

• Teach themselves enough English to use email, chat as well as search engines. Using these learning stations people have started learning the languages.
• They learnt to search the internet for answers to the questions in a few months of time. Because now they have access to the language. Now they can ask the questions, they can obtain the answers by making use of different browsers.
• Then improve their English pronunciation on their own, because there is audio facility, there is video facility. Making use of such advanced facilities they can improve upon their language abilities.
• Then improve their mathematics and science scores in the school. We have already seen that. There is an improvement of 18 to 25% in case of maths as well as science. So we can easily improve upon academic performance.
• Then answer examination questions several years ahead of time. So that they develop that confidence of solving any problem or answering any questions.
• Change their social interaction skills as well as the value systems.

So these were some of the outcomes of the experiments that were conducted by Sugata Mitra.

Peer to Peer Learning Patterns:

And it leads to the peer to peer learning patterns. The socio-metric surveys reveal that learners identify the leaders. The learner maybe at the initial level or the learner maybe at the fag end of his professional career. Because he is also a learner, so they try to identify the leader. And they try to develop the leaders in the community.

The basic focus was on the social networking, self-regulation and collaboration. Patterns of knowledge flow from key leaders, who were identified and provided with targeted input, to other children at the learning station. The students or the learners who were typically called as slum dwellers by the society. But these experiments made them as a leader, so that they started developing their abilities and they started developing their confidences.

So put together we can say that when we say that how can the farmer learn the advanced techniques of computers and how can they make use of the computer and get the benefits. When the most disadvantaged section of the society, whom we call as slum dwellers can do this why not the farmers. So that is why I wanted to discuss the outcomes of the experiences of learnings of this particular experiment of the Hole in the Wall.

Conclusion:

• Basically it dealt with the method of unsupervised learning. So farmers are also in a similar setting but they are not that disadvantageous as the slum dwellers. They are far better equipped than the slum dwellers. So with unsupervised learning they can also learn huge number of things.
• And the accessibility of infrastructure leads to learning processes. We can take the farmers in that direction.
• And formal education is not a barrier. If you have it, it is an added advantage, if you don’t have it ,it is not going to be a barrier for the minimum invasive education or the learning on your own or learning by doing.

With such experiments, we can learn, we can acquire skills, as well as we can be part of the development initiatives. This is what is the learning that we can have through the discussions on various experiments that are conducted in e-Extension.

So with this we are coming to the end of this discussion. And in the next interaction we will be discussing about the concept of knowledge management.

Thank You.